Springfield, Mass. – January 13, 2024 – The Springfield College men's basketball team fell to WPI by a 69-63 final in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) matchup on the campus of Western New England University tonight.

WPI, which was receiving votes in this week's D3hoops.com national poll, improved to 12-3 overall and to 5-1 in the NEWMAC, while Springfield dropped to 5-10, 2-4.

Junior Curtiss Blische (Barkhamsted, Conn.) led Springfield's offense with 16 points and added six rebounds, three blocks and a steal, while first-year Jeremy Brown (Queensland, Australia) chipped in with 11 points, one assist and one rebound. Junior Tre Hodge (Springfield, Mass.) in his first start of the season, notched ten points, five rebounds and a steal. John Adams paced the WPI offense with a 20 point, 11 rebound double-double and Donovan Sevilla notched 22 points, three boards, two assists and a steal.

WPI jumped out to an 11-6 edge just 5:36 into the game following a three point bucket from Tim Reidy. Over the next six minutes, Springfield embarked on a 17-3 run giving the Pride its largest lead of the game of nine points at 23-14. Over the stretch, four different Springfield student-athletes knocked down shots from behind the arc capped by a trey by Blische with 8:07 to play before the break.

Springfield held a 27-20 lead following a layup from Hodge with 6:02 remaining in the stanza before WPI scored 14 of the half's final 22 points as the score stood at 35-34 in favor of the Pride at the buzzer.

The Engineers outscored the Pride by a 12-2 margin over the first 4:52 of the second half to take a 42-37 edge. WPI eventually built its lead to as many as 12 at 55-43 midway through the stanza following a layup from J.R. Newman. Out of a WPI timeout, Springfield put together a quick 10-4 run capped by a trey from Brown to cut its deficit to just six at 59-53 with 5:49 to play. John Adams tallied four points on one possession for WPI just minutes later to once again make it a double digit lead for the Engineers as the visitors went on to take the game by a 69-63 final.

Springfield shot at a 47.9-percent clip from the floor and at a 50.0-percent clip from behind the arc in the setback. The pride scored 26 points in the paint and turned 11 WPI turnovers into nine points.

Springfield will travel to Emerson College for a NEWMAC battle on Tuesday, January 16 at 7:00 pm as the first of three conference games for the Pride next week.

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